Oxygen

Chapter 16 - Stolen birds

The darkness is a burden. I feel an icy shudder trickle down my spine. As my eyes focus to the low light, I see metal bars trapping me in a small room, and there is a man in the room next to me curled in a tight ball. Dusty light shines through a small window, and the room smells of pee as I stretch on the concrete floor.

I move to lean against the wall, and begin to recognize the man next door. I see his blonde hair, scuffed and mixed with brown dirt, and his normally cool clean clothes are dirty, his white t-shirt ripped at the sleeves.

I crawl to the icy cold bars separating our rooms, and grip onto them desperately. My body aches all over, and my arm burns from the needle. I bet it wasn't sterile. I hold the bars as tight as I can and whisper through the barrier.

"Jordan!" I say, frantically wishing he would open his eyes. I try again, this time speaking with telepathy, one of my abilities. "Jordan, please wake up" I beg, determined to make sure he's okay. This time I get a small signal back. "Yea I'm okay" he says back, the weakness visible in his voice.

Whatever they injected us with, it must have affected our abilities, because I can feel the fragility in the communication. Jordan and I weren't on the best of terms, but it's hard to be angry with him. My feelings of hate immediately disappear and are replaced with those of love and care.

Jordan's eyes finally flutter open, but I can see him struggling to stay awake. My eyes are straining too, but I use all my energy to stay with him. Jordan uncurls from his ball, and crawls slowly to me. When he uncovers his face, there is a large bruise dominating where his eye should be visible. I don't seem to be that hurt, just a few smaller bruises on my legs from when I was thrown in the truck.

"Your face" I inquire, and he brings one hand to touch it, the other holding the bars. "Ouch" he says, but smiling never the less. The mark was big, covering his cheek and eye, and the colour was a murky black. I smile sincerely, and say the words I've been needing to say all this time.

"I'm sorry Jordan, that you don't have another ability, and I'm sorry I was so stupid about it. I shouldn't have acted the way I did-".

As I'm talking something puts me off. Jordan's bruise is slowly returning to his normal tanned colour. My mouth gapes open in amazement, and Jordan looks at me like I'm drunk. I've never been drunk, but there's a first time for everything.

"What?" Jordan asks, removing his hand from his face. "Your face" I repeat, and I touch it with my own two fingers as my wrist twists through the bars. "I know, you told me. Fern, are you alright?" He asks, a worried look masking his face.

"No, I mean, there was a bruise there, but it's healed" I manage to mutter the words, astonished. Jordan, peers through my eyes, seeing his broad reflection in them. "That's-" He starts.

"Your ability" I finish. He smiles infectiously, and I let a grin smother me with happiness.

Just as I reach through the bars to hug him, he holds me back, and trades it for a kiss. "I love you" he whispers, and I return the gesture with a deeper kiss. I can feel his smile through the kiss as I pull away. We only kiss on the rarest occasion, but it makes things that much more special.

I lean back, against the cool wall next to me. I watch the drawings scratched in it as Jordan speaks. "Charlie and Georgia?" he asks, and I turn to him, realizing what he means.

I crawl to the front of the cell, and look down the hall. Jordan lags behind, but comes next to me to search for himself. "Their down there" I point, seeing the two fast asleep in separate cells. Charlie's usual expression is distraught with a fixed frown, while Georgia's is peaceful but overwhelmed. 

I speak to Charlie first, trying to wake him. "Charlie", I shout, using my ability to my best efforts. He arouses a little bit, and I say it again.

After the second time, he sits up slowly, and looks in my direction. He sees me, and smiles sympathetically. I return the smile, and use my telepathic advantage. "Can you wake Georgia?" I ask, and he gives me the thumbs up. Luckily we have been practicing this, so it's not too different to how it was at the house, other than the stinging pain in my head when I send the message.

Charlie reaches through the bars and shivers at the low temperature of the rusty metal. He taps three times on Georgia's shoulder, and whispers, "Love, Georgia, please wake up". I can see the care in his eyes as she opens hers, bringing her hands immediately to her head.

"Are you okay?" Charlie asks, and she nods. I can sense the pain in her face as she sits up. Charlie helps her sit against the bars, and signals back to me. "She's fine" he mouths, but I can tell from a mile away neither of them are.

I smile back sadly, and Jordan rubs my shoulder. I turn to him and say in my head, "They injected us with something, it's making my abilities difficult to use" I put my hand to my head, gesturing that I have a headache.

"It's okay, I'll say the rest" he promises, and I nod. The silence soothes my throat as I take a minute to breathe.

Jordan says something to Charlie, and I hear a faint banging, the sound of metal being torn apart. I look up briefly, and see Charlie standing to his feet, and tugging at the bars, trying to pull them away.

I shake my head at him, but he ignores me. Georgia tries to tug on his arm, but it only makes him try harder. Jordan rises from his seat, and starts doing the same. "We need to get out of here" he justifies to me.

I shake my head rapidly, barely able to see him in the darkness. Who knows what time it is. "It won't help if they hear us" I argue, and Jordan stops to look at me.

"Charlie and I are stronger than you think, we could get these down in a couple of minutes if we were full health".

"If you were full health" I debate. I was right, and he knew it. He pulled harder, determined to get himself free. Charlie worked just as hard, sweat dripping from his face. 

Charlie is older than Jordan. Jordan is only eighteen, but Charlie is at least five years older, and with only a mental ability, he may not be strong enough to handle those bars. I look at Charlie sternly, and he sees what I'm trying to say.

He pulls away, distraught by his attempt, but I knew he couldn't do it. Georgia gave him a look that said, it's okay, and he gave her a soft kiss. I hope for their sake we get out of here alive.

The pressure starts building in my head, and Jordan starts puffing. "Stop" I articulated, my lips barely able to say the words. Jordan stopped, having only moved the bars maybe an inch apart. I stroked his arm tiredly as he fell to the ground, and he drooped away before I could say anything.

Suddenly I smelt something horrible, even worse than the smell of the room. Gas. I coughed loudly, attempting to warn Charlie and Georgia too, but it was too late. Both of them were lying face down on the floor, flat out gone. My voice cried desperately for the gas to disappear, but it didn't. The last few seconds my eyes were open, I saw a big burly man coming from the distance, gas mask covering his face.

"Hello, Fern".